Bangladesh should not join Quad, says former foreign secretary

Quad has mainly been formed to contain China and it will not be wise for Bangladesh to join this informal alliance, said Md Touhid Hossain, former foreign secretary of Bangladesh.

“We all know that the initiative has been taken to contain China. It will not bring any benefit for Bangladesh if it joins the Quad,” Hossain told the Business Insider Bangladesh.

He thinks Bangladesh should refrain from joining it.

Referring to Chinese ambassador Li Jiming remarks that the Bangladesh-China relations will face a serious setback if it joins the US-led anti-China informal strategic alliance, he said, such a type of platform emerges as a demand of time and this does not sustain for a long time.

“Bangladesh can go forward with its foreign policy of ‘friendship with all and malice towards none’,” the former top diplomat of the country said.

China is now engaged in a number of development projects in Bangladesh and at the same time India has also been involved in such activities in the country.

According to Hossain, Bangladesh should move forward following the best practices of its foreign policies.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as the Quad, is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India. The dialogue was initiated in 2007 by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with the support of US vice president Dick Cheney, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

According to diplomatic sources, India has been trying to bring Bangladesh on board of Quad since 2019, but Bangladesh is yet to take any decision on this tricky issue.